St. Charles, Missouri – McKissen + Company is proud to announce founder Dustin McKissen was recently named one of “100 St. Louisians” you should know by Small Business Monthly, a business journal serving the St. Louis metropolitan area.

“Our family moved to St. Charles fours year ago,” Dustin said. “And we love this community. A low cost of living, a high quality of life, and great people have made it our hometown. The support our company receives from local businesses and the chance to be a part of the OPO Startups community have been incredible.”

“I grew up around Salt Lake City, and my wife I lived in Phoenix and the Miami area. This region has been the best, most welcoming place either of us have ever lived. I know our company wouldn’t have grown the way it has anywhere else, which is why it’s special for me and for our company to be recognized as an important part of a region that means so much to us.”

Honorees will be recognized at a luncheon held at the St. Charles Convention Center during the St. Louis Business Expo from 11AM-1PM on April 19, 2017.

About McKissen + CompanyMcKissen + Company is a content marketing and strategic consulting firm focused on the public sector and complex and highly regulated industries. The company serves clients throughout the United States and Europe, and is proud to call St. Charles, Missouri, home.

Founder Dustin McKissen is also an Inc. columnist, CNBC contributor, Yahoo! Finance contributor, and a LinkedIn Top Voice.

This article originally published on Inc.comMohandas Karamchand Gandhi became an activist while working as an anonymous lawyer in South Africa. As an African-American born in Jim Crow Georgia, Martin Luther King, Jr. started his life in one of the most inherently powerless environments a 20th century American could experience. Albert Einstein began his career toiling away in obscurity as a patent clerk.

All three started their lives and careers with about as much formal power as the rest of us have:

None.

Yet they changed the world anyway.

For hundreds of years, future generations will study Gandhi's and King's methods for empowering the dispossessed. Einstein's scientific breakthroughs changed our knowledge of how the universe worked.

They each had a powerful message--and no easy way to share that message.

Gandhi didn't have Instagram to share pictures of what a hunger strike actually looked like.

Martin Luther King, Jr. couldn't use Twitter to spontaneously organize a protest.Einstein couldn't make a YouTube video to explain the Theory of Relativity.

In other words, when they wanted to change the world, these once anonymous, unknown, unlikely change agents and revolutionaries didn't have the tools you and I take for granted.

They had to spread their message the hard way.

You don't.

If you believe our political dialogue sucks, if you are concerned about racial or economic inequality, if you think businesses are bogged down with too many taxes--whatever your concerns are, you have all the tools you need to spread your message.

When Gandhi first witnessed racial injustice in South Africa, he couldn't jump on his computer and start blogging about it. He couldn't take a picture and watch it go viral.

He couldn't livestream it on Facebook.

Think about it: Today, right now, you are better equipped to change the world than Gandhi was at that moment. You're literally a huge step ahead of Gandhi.

So what are you going to do when you see something you don't like, or wish was different? Are you going to post a status update telling us how 2017 is already starting to suck as bad as 2016 did? Are you going to stay quiet and leave the hard work of shaping the world you want to see to someone else?

Or are you going to actually get out there and do something about it?

Are you going to be the person who complains to others about how much your job sucks, or be a leader and a voice for change?

You don't have to free an entire continent of people to make the world a better place. In fact, if Gandhi were an Inc. contributor, he would probably write an article titled 3 Things I Learned About Changing the World (And the First One is Begin in Your Office or Home).

You shouldn't try and change your workplace by posting a blog about how much your boss sucks (that usually turns out badly), but you still have tools to create change within even the smallest environments. For example, workplace communication is a perpetual challenge--but I've seen office environments where using technology to facilitate casual conversation changed an entire culture.

Whether it's the whole world or "merely" your work, stop complaining, and start making things better.

​If you wanted one election outcome last week--but got another--you were reminded that the world is an uncontrollable place.

And that can be a hard thing to internalize.

If you thought you signed up for a good job, for lifetime employment in a factory, only to find that regardless of how good of a job you do executives still outsource you--well, you are again reminded that the world is an uncontrollable place.

But while most of us can't shape world events, we can exert some level of control over our own lives.

Here's how.

1. Define your worth by what can't be taken away from you. Growing up, my family struggled economically, but they did have their moments, and they always validated those moments with things.

The new Jeep with big tires and a lift kit that my dad always wanted.

The new, bright red car my mom always wanted.

Cool shoes--finally--for my brother and me.

My parents were no different than the rest of us, and I'm glad they got us better shoes. Trust me: Kmart made a poor imitation of a Reebok Pump.

But all of that--the Jeep, the shiny red car, the house, even the shoes we outgrew--was all temporary, and everything but the shoes was taken back by a lender. Each of those losses wounded my parents and left scars that never healed.

Don't define yourself by material goods, no matter how hard you worked for them, and no matter how much you think you deserve them. Anything material can be lost or taken, or simply will decay with time.

Instead, define your worth by the things no one can take away from you.

Like what's in your heart.

And what's in your brain.

Compassion and knowledge can never be taken from you, and having something that can't be taken from you is the definition of control.

2. Take as much of your own destiny into your own hands as possible. Every time I read one of those "Global Economy Faces Impending Meltdown" articles, I have two immediate thoughts.

First thought: "Oh no, this was a horrible time to start a business!"

Second thought: "I would rather die in a fire that I lit than die in one someone else lit for me."

In other--less melodramatic--words, as an entrepreneur I feel like I have a hand in shaping my own destiny, even when things look bad. I can create a new strategy, develop a new product or service, or try something different.

It may not work out, but at least I'm not a bystander to my own success or failure.And that's the best part of being an entrepreneur: having some control of your own destiny.

3. Remember that while the past is set in stone, the future has yet to take shape. You can't exert any control over something that's unchangeable, and the only thing that's completely unchangeable is the past.

It's already happened.

But you can learn from the past and use it to shape your future.

If four years from now you want to be a business owner or a doctor, or spend your days lying on the beach in California smoking legalized recreational marijuana, that's up to you.

It's up to you to find an entrepreneur who will mentor you.

It's up to you to figure out what it takes to become a doctor.

It's up to you to figure out how you can spend your days on the beach and still afford California real estate and legal weed.

All of those might be difficult--especially the third one--but if you want something for yourself, you can figure out how to make it happen.​And that's the ultimate form of control.

This article originally published on Inc.com​About a year and a half ago I quit a six-figure job, gave up a pretty sweet office space and a lot of perks, and decided to make it on my own.

At points it's been terrifying.

But I can say, without a doubt, that if I had to do it all over again there is only one thing I would change:

I would do it sooner.

And I would go back and share some of what I've learned with my past self.

Since I can't do that, I'll share it with you:

1. Don't panic--or at least let your panic motivate you. I started my business with two large clients. One was my former employer, and the other was a business I had a longstanding consulting relationship with.

Then in the same month they both left me.

One was unexpectedly (at least to me) acquired, and the other decided to go a different direction and bring the marketing and public relations services I was providing in-house.

The result was that I was left, at that moment, without a dependable income--for the first time in my entire adult life. I grew up poor, and I know what government cheese tastes like. I've always managed my career with one overarching objective:

To make sure my kids never know what government cheese tastes like.

I panicked. I applied to be an Uber driver. I started contacting anyone I had previously worked with who might be a potential client. I became much more flexible in the type of clients I worked with.

If you become an entrepreneur, you will have moments where panic is the only sane response.

Just make sure your next step after panic is action.

2. Focus on what you can control. The entire lifespan of my company has occurred during the most tumultuous and uncertain presidential election in recent history.

Entrepreneurs and the economy in general do not like uncertainty--and regardless of your opinion on the outcome of the election, the one thing all of us can agree on is that we have entered an uncertain era.

But you know what?

Uncertainty is a part of life and existed long before this election.

And the future is always unknown.

Besides that, there is little I or you can personally do to unilaterally change the course of world events. We can vote. We can have a voice.

But ultimately the world is beyond our control.

However, we can control the decisions we make.

Beyond your control, start creating a business that can navigate--or even thrive in--uncertain times.

3. I could never, ever go back. At one point during these 18 months I had an opportunity to leave my company and join another firm. They were and are a rapidly growing company, with a culture I like. This firm is also led by people I admire and respect, and they offered me a well-paid leadership position.

That offer came during one of those moments when I was a little nostalgic for a bit more economic security than entrepreneurship offers--particularly during the first 18 months of a new company.

In the end, I couldn't take it.

I love what I'm doing now too much.

I love that I get to decide the direction of our company.

I love signing my paycheck--and signing the paychecks of others.

I love that I get to plan our first company Christmas Party, for our tiny staff of three.

I love that there are some things I can control, even if there are a lot of things I can't.

For one, Jerry Maguire would have never walked out on his job, and embarked on one of the greatest love stories and entrepreneurial journeys of the 1990s.

(If you don't get the Jerry Maguire reference, you should stop what you're doing right now and get to the nearest Netflix subscription.)

(And you should be ashamed of yourself.)

Under Boehner's definition of leadership, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would have never become "Gandhi" by fighting racism in South Africa. He would have asked, "Who's with me?"

And heard nothing but crickets.

Martin Luther King Jr. would have never become The Martin Luther King Jr. Instead, he would have sent out a poll to determine what level of support the Montgomery bus boycott had amongst soccer moms age 25-49 with a college degree, and realized that he didn't yet have the support of a key constituency.

Lyndon Johnson would not have demonstrated the type of leadership that could have made him a great president when he stated that Democrats had, "lost the South for a generation" upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And, closer to home, how many entrepreneurs would be where they are today had they waited for others to get onboard the train before it left the station?

I know no one was knocking down my door to be part of yet another consulting firm.

Here are two truths:

Real leaders don't wait until someone is standing behind them before they take a bold step forward.

There is no cheaper or meaningless word in today's world than "follower."

If all it takes to be a leader is to have followers, then anyone with a Twitter handle is a leader.

And, if I want to be even more of a leader than I already am, all I have to do is take up that woman or man wearing next-to-no clothing on the offer they sent via DM to get me thousands of additional followers for just $14.99.

At that cost, by the end of the day I can be five times the leader I was this morning for the same price I paid to take my whole family to see Finding Dory.

Leadership doesn't require having 12, 12,000, or 12,000,000 followers--in fact, real leadership often begins with 0 followers, and a whole lot of people telling you that you're an idiot.

However, an election isn't what stands between us and a better world than the one we live in today.

And here's how we can make the world a little better, right now.

1. Get to know other people as actual people--rather than as memes.

We have always been a country of labels, but those labels become much more efficient when we try to define everything we know about the world and the people in it in less than 140 characters.

Let me show you:

"White working class voter" is 25 characters, not including the quotation marks.

"Millennial" is 10 characters, not including the quotation marks.

"Baby Boomer" is 11 characters, not including the quotation marks.

"Republican" is 10 characters, not including the quotation marks.

"Democrat" is 8 characters, not including the quotation marks.

Labels like these can provide a rough idea of what sort of experiences and beliefs shape someone's values.

However, labels in no way give us an understanding of an actual, individual human being. But in a culture that increasingly values simplicity--when sometimes it seems like all we need to know about the world is what we learn in a meme--it seems like these labels matter more.

But you don't have to play that game. You have the power to hop off this crazy train.

Get out and get to know people for who they really are, rather than as labels or memes.

I have a cousin who is a conservative Christian, white working-class voter without a college degree.

He is also a fantastic father and a great human being.

I have a great friend who is a liberal African American Muslim with a college degree.

He is also a fantastic father and a great human being.

The three of us live in different states, and my cousin and my friend have never met, but it will be a special day when we do--and not because of anything related to politics, but because my cousin and my friend are two of the funniest guys I know, and by the end of the night our faces will hurt from laughing.

Look up from your meme, and get to know the person in front of you.

It will make your world and our world better.

2. Empower yourself.

According to Article II of the Constitution, the president is Commander in Chief, who makes treaties, fills vacancies, signs legislation into law, and is head of the Executive branch.

The president also fills another important role. Who we choose as president helps signal to the rest of the world who we are, and what we believe. I hear that from my firm's international clients regarding President Obama--and you can read about the way much of Europe views Ronald Reagan.

That's what the president is.

What the president is not is some sort of wish-granting fairy Godmother, or the genie from Aladdin.

All politicians campaign using a variation of the slogan Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite used when he ran for class president:

"Vote for me, and all of your wildest dreams will come true."

Reality check: You won't wake up on November 9, 2016, in the world of your wildest dreams.

And you won't wake up 5, 10, or 20 years from now in the world of your wildest dreams, either--unless you do the hard work to get there.

A president will not solve your problems for you, or magically give you the life you deserve.

You have to earn that life.

3. Be kind.

In every interaction we have with others, whether that interaction occurs face-to-face or digitally, we have a choice:

We can be kind, or we can be cruel.

When we choose kindness, we make the world a little bit better.

When we choose cruelty, we make the world a little worse.​ But either way, that choice is ours--and we have to make that choice, regardless of who is President.